The music produced at the Vortex this week by Scottish pianist Chick Lyall and the Stockholm saxophonist Joachim Milder had pensive episodes, perhaps brought on by the undeserved emptiness of the room. But though at times it had a familiar north-European ambient-jazz feel, there were periods of absorbing intensity, in which the quartet sounded of one mind.

Lyall is a preoccupied-looking performer with an inventive angle on the music of Keith Jarrett, among others. Jarrett echoes could be heard not only in his deft and subtly paced improvising, but also in some of the compositions, which were absorbingly reminiscent of the Jarrett quartet with saxophonist Dewey Redman. The Lyall quartet had an organic feel thanks to a sensitive four-way effort, with bassist Mike Dunning lending a quiet urgency to the music with quick, pushing phrases, and drummer Tom Bancroft edgily propulsive.

At the outset, the music seemed to be heading into softly whispering Jan Garbarek territory. Lyall began with liquid, gently stroked figures, and Milder (on the curved soprano sax favoured by Garbarek) shadowed him with vaporous hooting sounds and long notes. But after five minutes or so of this tiptoeing, the four partners began to intensify their contributions so that the lines became more entangled. Bancroft, who favours a hard, clapping drum sound and much use of the rims, steered Lyall into a long, eloquent improvisation.

A fast, bright, Ornette Coleman-like melody over bumpy percussion followed, with Milder quickening his pace and improvising in bursts of crowded runs and sudden startled whoops. A more abstract, dreamlike theme followed, with Milder on tenor sax concentrating on a low, guttural, faintly grumpy tone. The intricate Twister brought a superb, insistently chattering drum solo from Bancroft in which the original pulse never wavered.